From Fights to Family Food: A History of Lenny's

Branford Patch reader Peggy Flynn e-mailed me with more of the scoop behind the history of , correcting a misstep or two I made in my original column on . I consulted with the usual sources (the reference team at the ) and went down to Lenny's to talk to Chris and Tom "Lloyd" Conlin, Lenny's sons and the co-owners of the restaurant.

Peggy was a close friend of Katherine Fitzgerald, one of the original owners of the Indian Head Inn, who managed the place by herself after her husband Thomas's death in 1959. Katherine rasied two children while managing the bar, and retired in 1966; she passed away in 1988. "I loved hearing her stories of days gone by," Peggy told me. "She had many."

Katherine and Thomas Fitzgerald opened a small restaurant and tavern in 1939, across the street from the current location of Lenny's, according to an article by town historian Jane Bouley. They eventually built the current location – possibly expanding a cottage that they owned, based on the construction of the "front room," suggest Lloyd and Chris. After World War II, they expanded the small structure, building a stage where they could feature bands. The restaurant ended where the bar ends now, and had a small kitchen. In 1950, the restaurant officially became the Indian Head Inn. Thomas tended the bar, despite having been crippled by a bout of polio during his childhood, and Katherine did the cooking. From 1959 to 1966, Katherine managed the place by herself. In 1968, Leonard and Theresa Conlin, better known as Lenny and Tee, bought the business from Ray Cummings, one of the interim owners.

Initially, Lenny and Tee focused on a small menu and bar service: they sold hamburgers, hot dogs, and roast beef sandwiches. (Lenny painted a new sign for the restaurant showing the change in management by adding his name in front of "Indian Head Inn," which is how its current name came to be.) Though they went through some slow business in the early years, in 1972, Connecticut passed a law lowering the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. The bar business took off, and during the 1970s Lenny's was a hangout for pool players and bikers – and was the site of many a brawl. Town residents nicknamed the bar the "Bucket of Blood," and even Lenny himself referred to working "Friday Night at the Fights." Lenny carried a gun in the bar, and current patrons of Lenny's can see a bullet hole in the ductwork shot through the front window by an angry patron during that era. At one point, Lenny's sold the most Budweiser and had the longest bar (77 feet) in the state of Connecticut.

Between 1982 and 1985, Connecticut progressively moved the drinking age back up to 21. (Due to his birthday, Lloyd was legally able to drink for three weeks out of each year as the age shifted.) During that period, the Conlins changed the focus of Lenny's from a bar to a restaurant: they expanded the menu to shoreline fare, decreased the bar, and remodeled part of the restaurant that had not been in use. (After a big snowstorm, the roof of the expansion had to be entirely redone – they built the new roof over the old building and stayed in operation during the construction.) They also added the porch and outdoor seating, becoming the restaurant that Branford residents now known and love.

In case you missed it, the answers to last week's :

1. 1644
2. 1896
3. 1985
4. 1988 (thanks to Deb and Barb at the for this answer!)
5. 1895 (bonus question: 1910)